Chapter 9

                              ~~~    Cyrus's Point of View    ~~~

      The town looks like it's having what we call a costume party. A 1920s costume party. While we are driving through the town people give us looks.

"What the hell is this town?" Jack whispers more to himself,

"Why are they looking at us this way? And why do they all look like they are in the 19 somethings?" Sally says looking out the window giving them dirty looks,

"Guys, I don't think we can find a hotel just driving around. Let's take a walk and look for one," Alice says getting ready to get out of the car,

"Are you out of your mind? Don't you see the look they are giving us when we are in the car? Who knows what they would do when we are out of the car?" Jack keeps driving through the crowded roads,

"Jack I think she is right. They won't do anything to anything to us. The most they can do is just keep giving us dirty looks," I say,

"Fine, where am I supposed to park my car?" Jack says looking in between old cars that were parked on the side of the road,

"Just park behind that car. The white one," Sally points at the old-fashioned white car.

Jack parks the car behind a white car. We get off the car together and close the doors locking it. We walk around the town looking at places that look like hotels. People give us dirty looks just like I said.

        While we are still looking for a hotel, this old woman, probably in her 70s comes up to us and says, "Dear goodness, what are you wearing!" she cries out. She is wearing long and what looked like a comfortable skirt. She is also wearing a sailor blouse. Her hair was white and curly covered by a large and white brim hat.

          Jack and I are wearing shorts with me, a white t-shirt and Jack, a black. Alice and Sally are wearing ripped jeans with crop tops.

      We look at each other in confusion and said, "What do you mean?"

"Ah, that just shows too much cleavage," she says making a disgusted face. It barely shows any.

      Jack and I press our lips trying to control ourselves from busting out laughing while Alice and Sally are trying to fix their outfits.

Jack, Sally, Alice, and I are walking through the crowd on the road still looking for a place to stay in. After Sally and Alice's outfit incident, the woman just walked away shaking her head in disapproval. Right the second the woman left, we burst out laughing as Alice and Sally were yelling at us to stop laughing. Thier faces were red as a tomato.

"It's getting late. Let's maybe search up a hotel or something," Jack says after a while of walking and admiring the town,

"Yeah, I will look for a place online maybe close to where we are at right now," I say opening my phone searching up a place,

"The internet is too slow," I say after a while of waiting for the results to load up,

"Just wait for it. It's better than sleeping outside," Jack opens a door that leads to a bar,

"Hey look, there's a restaurant, I think... Come on," Jack says after studying the place.

          We walk through two doors leading to a restaurant designed in an old way. A song I don't recognize is blasting and people are dancing in the 19 somethings way.

"What in the actual hell is this place?" Sally walks to the bar to order drink. The bartender walks over to take orders while she studies him up and down. He is wearing a short suit jacket and had a long mustache. He is bald in the middle, but there's little hair at the sides of his head.

"Can I get 4 shots please?" Alice gives her a 'are you insane' look while Jack and I  burst out laughing,

"How old are you, dear?" the man asks confused,

"Oh, we are all 22 dear," and there we are bursting out laughing again,

"S that's enough," Alice says in a serious tone,

"Come on A, it's fun," Sally says laughing.

          The man says no more when he brings our drinks and sets them down on the table. I feel kind of bad for the man since he was just doing his job.

"I am sorry dear, I can not take this. What is this?" the man says studying the dollar she gave him,

"Um it's money? I am paying for our drinks my dear," she says,

"This is forgid money. You pay with this," he pulls out an old dollar and put it in front of her. She examines the money and chuckles looking at him.

"Are you serious? This is like the 19 somethings money," she says looking at him in a funny way,

"I am sorry darling, what year do you think it is?" the bartender raises his eyebrows,

"It's 2019," she says,

"This is not funny ma'am," the man looks annoyed,

"You see this? This was invented in 2017," she says pulling out her Iphone X,

"What is this?" he observes the phone amused.

After a long argument of us saying it's 2019 and him saying 1920s, he let us go without paying thinking we didn't have money to pay and that we are making excuses not to pay. We took that oportunity to leave without paying.

We are walking down the road again looking for a place to stay since the internet didn't work.

      30 minutes of walking later, a man invited us to his house saying we looked lost walking around the block. We told him how we got here and how we were looking for a place to stay and he actually believed us. Not a single person in that town believes the year is 2019. The man told us that they were raised to believe they are still in the 20th century. Since the town was founded, the people that lived here believed it was still in the early 20th century.

   

         

          That night, the man whose name is Robert, gave us fried fish for dinner and watched a movie called "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". Later that night, Alice, Sally, Jack, and I are talking about what had happened through out the day when my phone started ringing. I checked the caller ID to find out it was my dad.

"Dad are you okay?!" I say right the second I picked up the phone,

"Son, you need to come home now. Your mom was shot and she is in the hospital. People are getting notes from The Silent Man that indicates who dies next. There was a note sent to Josephine yesterday. She showed me right when I came home and today while I was at work, she was shot. Where are you?! I need you to come back now! Are you listening to me?!" dad says as fast as he could,

"Yes dad, I am on my way. I will be there by tomorrow morning," I say trying to control tears from spilling,

"Where are you? How far away are you from here?" he is worried,

"Don't worry about me dad. I promise I will be home by tomorrow morning," I say hanging up,

"What happened?" Alice asks as I get up and start collecting my stuff,

"My mom's in the hospital. The Silent Man shot her. He lied. He tricked us into getting far out of town. He is killing everyone. We need to go back," I run out the door with Jack and the others following behind.

                                Our journey back to Goldfinch started right then...